5 Strategies for Staying Motivated Through the End of Year
It happens every year. You had plans to dedicate time at the end of the year to documentation, “housekeeping” items that you typically don’t have time for during busy seasons, and action planning for the next year. But *something* inevitably gets in the way of your plans to end the year strong.
Who else is feeling like this right now?
If you work in a fast-paced environment, there seems to always be an urgent initiative, project, or experiment that pops up at year’s end - especially if there’s a push to hit annual goals. Those urgent projects can upend your best laid plans to end the year off strong and can sometimes be de-motivating for you and your teams. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be that way.
This week, I’m focusing on actionable strategies for ending the year off strong. Happy reading!
5 High-Leverage Activities to Focus on at the End of the Year
Evaluate your team’s accomplishments: Review what you and your team have accomplished this year. Did you set out to accomplish what you planned to? Why is that? If you didn’t achieve all your goals, why not? I wrote about how to conduct an annual review for yourself and your team, if you haven’t done one yet — now’s still a good time!
Celebrate your team’s achievements: Celebrating accomplishments and milestones is a powerful way to boost morale and motivation within your team. The holidays are the perfect time to make sure that your team feels recognized for their hard work and the progress they made over the course of this year. Here’s a few ideas:
Dedicate time to shouting out their accomplishments from this year in Slack (if they don’t mind public praise!)
Carve out time for them to reflect on their accomplishments during 1:1s with you and for you to share feedback and praise
Buy them holiday gifts (my 2023 gift guide has tons of ideas)
Most importantly, make sure you schedule time for appreciation, the next few weeks will fly by and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to give your team members the recognition they deserve.
Identify 3-5 mini projects that can be completed by the end of the year: It’s a good idea to keep your team motivated and productive within reason - don’t be the person that assigns the equivalent of a 3 month long project on December 1 and expects it to be completed by December 31. In my experience, the projects that make the most sense to focus on at this time of year are things like:
Authoring (or updating) documentation
Deprecating outdated processes and documentation
Identifying bottlenecks in the ways your current team operates and creating new processes to streamline their workflows (what manual processes can the team automate?)
Scheduling and planning in-person time for Q1, and
Performing reflective data analysis (what trends did you see this year? What can you learn from them?)
Keep the list short, check in on progress, and celebrate each time your team chips away at completing items on the list before the year is up.
Schedule PTO for the next year: Creating a positive and supportive work environment is essential for maintaining high levels of motivation. Supporting your team’s need to take time off during the year is a great way to show you care about their well-being. The end of year is a great time to have your team think about what time they’ll want to take off in the coming year. As a manager, this gives you insight into what coverage you’ll potentially need to plan for and it allows you to set and manage expectations around time off for your team. Remember - the goal is not to be punitive or overly restrictive, the goal is to collect information and provide visibility to your team so that they can make fair plans and manage their schedules.
Focus on growth and development: The end of the year is an ideal time to offer your team opportunities for growth and development. If your company offers a professional development stipend and there’s a skill you or your team need to brush up on, December’s a great time to use your allotted budget. Investing in their (and your own) professional development not only benefits your team members individually but also increases their motivation and engagement. Here’s a few ideas for PD:
Coaching: 1:1 coaching can be an incredibly powerful support mechanism for team members looking to achieve a specific set of goals. I personally offer coaching services for middle managers (incl. functional leaders and people managers) experiencing career transitions. I work with clients to navigate their new role/new company, I provide job search coaching, and I coach clients who are on a promotion track or want to be. My services can be paid for out of pocket or if your company is sponsoring your coaching - I invoice them and work directly with your Accounting & Finance teams on payment. If you’re interested, you can submit an inquiry directly on my site.
Courses & Trainings: If you’re looking for a great online course option, browse the selection at Maven (they’re currently hosting a Cyber Monday sale - 25% off select courses). Here’s a few that stood out to me: Make Better Decisions, Build a Narrative for Influence, and Spreadsheet Automation.
Books: Books can be a powerful professional development resource for your team. I’ve read (and still read) my fair share of business books and it’s significantly helped myself and others improve the following skills: problem-solving, efficient communication, greater adaptability and resilience, and believe it or not, books have helped me become more self aware. If you’re looking for inspiration - I compiled a list of my favorite business reads. I would highly recommend these books (and podcasts) for individual contributors and leaders in fast-paced environments/teams - the skills and observations are applicable to multiple industries and various company sizes.
Would love to hear how you plan to spend the rest of the year! What has worked well for you?
About me
I’m Ashley, a former executive turned business consultant and coach. I’ve spent a decade in tech, collecting successes and learning from my mistakes - so you don’t have to. Now, I spend my time doing what I love the most: solving problems for companies experiencing a period of accelerated growth. I work with founders/leaders to establish operations that enable growth and I work with individual leaders who are navigating the job search, starting a new role, or are on a promotion track - resulting in better business outcomes and highly productive teams.